1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an on-board display control device and an on-board display control method, and in particular, relates to a device and a method for controlling display of meter and other information on an on-board display provided in an instrument panel of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been vehicles that include a liquid crystal display constituting an instrument panel (hereinafter referred to as IP) installed in a dashboard. The on-board display (hereinafter referred to as IP display) provided in the IP displays meter information is used for driving a vehicle, and may provide information such as travel speed, engine rotational speed, and fuel remaining level. In addition, there are vehicles equipped with an IP display configured to display information related to a navigation device and an audio device.
In general, a driver utilizes the meter information, and hence, a relatively large sized view is provided for the driver. In other words, the meter information commonly occupies a large proportion of the IP display. This leaves a small area to display information other than the meter information (hereinafter referred to as “miscellaneous information”). This is problematic in that the visibility of the miscellaneous information may be poor.
A speedometer is designed to indicate the travel speed from a lower limit at 0 km/h to an upper limit at 180 km/h, 260 km/h, or 300 km/h corresponding to the maximum speed of a vehicle. A view of a speedometer designed for an IP display is also displayed in accordance with the form described above. Under general usage, however, vehicles seldom travel at a speed in proximity to the maximum speeds. Hence, an area for high speeds in a speedometer is a dead space that is rarely used.
There are techniques proposed to change a display mode of a speedometer in accordance with a traveling status of a vehicle (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2010-143407, 2004-237844, and 2005-308477). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-143407 describes a technique to change an upper limit value of a speedometer in accordance with a recognition speed, which is a speed that should be recognized by a driver while a vehicle is traveling. Accordingly, a plurality of scales indicating speeds is changed to have different mutual intervals (refer to FIGS. 7 and 8).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-237844 describes a technique, for a speedometer that allows a partially enlarged view, to change a speed range for the enlarged view in accordance with the classification of a road (a road with a low speed limit or a freeway) being traveled on (refer to FIG. 3). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-308477 describes a technique to change a lower limit value and an upper limit value of a speedometer of a vehicle for display in accordance with a travel speed of the vehicle (refer to FIGS. 1 and 2).